Bashar Assad said that if Saudi Arabia and Turkey send
their troops to Syria, the Damascus authorities will treat them as terrorists.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – If Saudi Arabia and Turkey send their troops to Syria, the Damascus
authorities will treat them as terrorists, Syrian President Bashar Assad
said.
"If this happens, we shall treat them
as terrorists. We defend our country. Nobody has the right
to interfere in Syria – neither from a political, nor
from a military point of view. This would be a violation
of international law, and for us, as well as for citizens
of Syria, the only possibility is to defend our motherland,"
Assad told El Pais newspaper.
Assad stressed that Turkey had been involved
in events of Syria from the very beginning and sent terrorists
to the country.
Last week, media reported that Saudi Arabia could send
thousands of ground forces to Syria, most likely in coordination
with Turkey, to take part in the fight against the Daesh
jihadist group. Shortly after that, Turkey reportedly sent troops to its
border, and also intensified the shelling of Kurdish-held areas
in northern border regions of Syria.
On Monday, a spokesman for Turkey’s ruling
Justice and Development Party (AKP), Omer Celik, said Turkey had no plans
to conduct a ground operation in Syria.
Riyadh has been a nominal member of a US-led
international coalition that has been carrying out airstrikes
against Daesh jihadists in Syria and Iraq since 2014. However,
the operations in Syria have been conducted without the approval
of the Syrian government or the UN Security Council.
Russia has also been leading a separate campaign
against Daesh militants in Syria since last September,
following a request from Syrian President Bashar Assad, having
outlawed the group.
No comments:
Post a Comment